1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing chitosan non-woven fabrics and an apparatus thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of producing ultra fine fibers of chitosan non-woven fabrics and an apparatus thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Because chitosan is a natural material, chitosan non-woven fabrics have properties and advantages that are unique to the natural material. For example, chitosan non-woven fabrics are very comfortable to wear, easily decomposed and absorbed by organisms, and very hygroscopic. In the medical field, several products, such as absorbable sutures, artificial skin and wound dressings, have been developed using the decomposition and absorption properties of the natural chitosan. Moreover, the highly hygroscopic property of chitosan can be applied to sanitary products such as wipe papers.
Traditional methods of producing chitosan non-woven fabrics includes a paper method, a needle punching method, a water needle method and an electrospinning method. In the paper method, chitosan fibers are dispersed in water and then through a net to form the shape of the chitosan non-woven fabrics. To complete the manufacturing of the chitosan non-woven fabrics, the chitosan fibers are dried by baking. The production speed of the paper method is very fast, and thus large quantities of chitosan non-woven fabrics can be manufactured. However, the chitosan non-woven fabrics made by the paper method are not soft and therefore have a bad feeling. The needle punching method improves on the disadvantages of the paper method. The chitosan non-woven fabrics made by the needle punching method are soft, highly hygroscopic, ventilated and easy to store. However, the cost of the needle punching method is high and the strength of the chitosan non-woven fabrics made by the needle punching method is weak. Moreover, both the paper method and the needle punching method need after-treatments to meet the demands of non-woven fabrics. The water needle method doesn't need after-treatment. The chitosan non-woven fabrics made by the water needle method have a good touch feeling. However, the water needle method consumes a lot of energy. The production cost of the water needle method is thus very high. The electrospinning method is a new technology, which is not mature enough and thus there are many technological bottlenecks need to be solved.